Distance: 39.1 miles

Time: 3:43

Elevation Gain: 1394 feet

I packed up on the wall beside a large multi-gym by the side of the lake, keen to make an early start to make for the ten past 11 ferry out of Ålesund.

Setting off along the 61, a short climb led me to a tunnel and from the other side, I could see the whole greater Ålesund area spreading out before me. It looked flat and fast, if I could just stay on this road, I’d be there in no time.

As it was my phone battery was running low, and as I approached the town, I suddenly noticed that highway 61 had become the E39, and the road started to drop towards a tunnel, and the sign was clear, no bikes.

Turning around and exiting at the previous sliproad, I attempted to follow the cycle path route into Ålesund, but trying not to use my phone for navigation, and just using what I thought were the signs denoting the route, I first of all ended up following the route in reverse, and then I followed a purple bike sign that took me off at a complete tangent, and when I tried to realign myself with the route ended up finding I no longer knew which way I was headed at all.

Needless to say, by the time I made it to the Ålesund ferry terminal I was 10 minutes late, it was 20 past 11 and the next ferry wasn’t until 14:35. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I hate cycle paths…

With significantly more time in Ålesund than I’d expected, it did give me time to appreciate the famed Art Deco harbour, and find an excellent Thai restaurant, Soi One, for a green thai curry.

When I arrived back at the terminal, I found that I wasn’t the only one who’d been waiting a considerable time for the ferry, when I met an Indian cyclist, now based in Hamburg, Arijit. He had started his four month trip from Hamburg before traversing Denmark and taking the ferry to Norway’s southerly port city of Kristiansand. From there he’d been working his way down the Atlantic coast route, and would be continuing north all the way to Nordkapp.

We were each thinking of staying at a campsite just past Midsund, 30 kilometres and another boat ride away, so after leaving the ferry in Hamnsund, we carried on together around two sides of a remote outpost of the mainland, a little sunshine and the hint of a tailwind providing rejuvenating companions. The rest of Arijit’s trip had not been like this.

Another ferry later, and we were sprinting around the mercifully flat island of Midøya, the road leading to the aptly named Midsund bridge, rising – as it did – steeply over the sound below, and onto the next island of Otrøya.

Stopping for supplies in Midsund, we didn’t spot the Thai takeaway truck in the supermarket car park until after we’d been inside, but a few satay skewers were unlikely to put us off our dinner.

From there it was only a short hop to the scenically positioned and very pleasant Sandneset campsite, situated on a small lake, and with a wall of cliffs in behind. It was only a small site, but luckily it was late enough in the day that there were no other demands for the kitchen, and we could make ourselves at home.

• bikepacking
• cycle-touring